


pesach

by parishilton



Series: zeta beta tau [2]
Category: Big Brother RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Fraternity, Anal Sex, Crack, Hand Jobs, Jealousy, M/M, Sexual Repression
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-13
Updated: 2014-10-13
Packaged: 2018-02-20 23:32:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2447132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parishilton/pseuds/parishilton
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"the dean thinks i'm dating frankie?" zach groans.</p><p>"derrick thinks it," hayden nods, holding out his hand to tick more people off each finger, "so does our entire frat house, at least half the school faculty, and i'm pretty sure that girl crossing the street thinks it."</p>
            </blockquote>





	pesach

**Author's Note:**

> this part revolves around the second half of frankie's first year at school and the title is the hebrew translation of passover. this part is in frankie's point of view, not zach's. again, for any and all inconsistencies to the jewish faith/actual zeta beta tau fraternity, i apologize.

frankie almost didn't go to a university in florida. he'd been thinking for a long time about joining his sister out in california, or even packing up and heading off to live alone in new york to try acting out for real.

but the university of florida offered him a hugely reduced tuition based on his triple-majoring and frankie's mother told him at the very least he could go for two years and transfer somewhere else later on, just to save himself from too much debt. frankie had reluctantly agreed, but misses his family already, and would probably regret going to school here if it wasn't for his new friends, particularly zach.

seeing zach's mother come to see him at school and realizing that wasn't something frankie's mother or sister would be able to do crushed him a little bit. the only people who would be able to visit frankie at school would be his slew of horrible ex-boyfriends from frankie's last four years of high school at pinecrest.

there was the guy on the school tennis team, who was the only non-closeted guy frankie had dated, who cheated on him with frankie's drama teacher. then there was the closeted guy he met at a gay club who ended up breaking up with frankie because his father was running for city counsel and found out about them.

and, of course, who could forget his ex who was a personal fitness trainer at a local gym near pinecrest. he was a few years older than frankie when they had been together. frankie wouldn't really refer to it as _dating_ , seeing as he never took frankie anywhere nice, and frankie had almost had to file a restraining order to keep the guy away after they stopped hooking up.

those are just a few of the reasons why frankie made a promise to himself this year to focus on school and managing all his classes, instead of going boy crazy like he has in the past. it was even working for about the first five days on campus, until a cute boy wearing a white polo and mint green golf shorts had walked up to him.

one month later and he's walking into his bedroom in the zeta beta tau house to find a little white envelope on his floor. someone must have slid it under his door, but frankie doesn't know who would do that instead of just handing it to him. maybe it's an invitation to a party somewhere on campus. 

he rips the envelope open and pulls out a sympathy card. he frowns and checks the envelope for a name or address, but nothing. nobody in his family has died, so maybe this was slid under the wrong door. he'll feel bad reading it if it's not meant for him, but how else is he supposed to find out who it's for?

when he opens it, he only becomes more confused.

 _dear frankie_ , it reads in sloppy cursive, _sorry to hear about your loss. missing out on something great is always difficult to come to terms with. just know that you are not alone during this process._

frankie balks. what the hell?

_many freshman rushers also pledge to terrible fraternities. you are not alone. i am sad to hear about the death of your college life. my condolences. have no fear - soon not even the worthless fraternity you're in now will want you. the school board does not know you are not jewish. leave zeta beta tau or force us to take action. -kappa kappa gamma_

frankie gapes. is this some kind of joke? some kind of weird initiation thing that cody and hayden and zach thought of? _god_ , he thought, it was kind of creepy. frankie can't even remember if that fraternity had approached him about pledging or not, but apparently zeta beta tau thinks they did and it using it as material for a prank.

* * *

“there aren’t enough rooms in this dump to fit all the new pledges,” cody complains one morning, biting into a piece of toast.

frankie is sitting at the breakfast table beside zach while hayden and cody are leaning against the kitchen counter drinking coffee. frankie sees zach glaring at cody out of the corner of his eye and he snickers to himself, because cody never seems to notice how much he aggravates zach.

“isn’t this what you _wanted_ , calzone?” hayden asks. “i seem to recall this step being part of your master plan to become president of the united states.”

“i only want to be president so i can get any girl i want,” cody corrects.

zach gets an evil glint in his eye and frankie knows he’s about to say something sarcastic. “but, _calzone_ , you _already_ slice the most pussy on campus.”

“cody slices about as much pussy as me,” frankie says with his mouth full of the m&m pancake that zach had made him for breakfast.

zach immediately whoops with laughter, his head dropping to frankie’s neck. frankie grins and pets zach’s head fondly.

“fuck you guys,” cody says with a laugh, “i’m moving your beds onto the roof so the freshmen can take _your_ rooms.”

truth be told, frankie knows they’ve given him special privileges by letting him have a whole room to himself, and he really would bunk up with someone else if they asked. hopefully zach, though. he wouldn’t want to get stuck with some calculus-loving, ayn rand-reading loser. shouldn’t cody, as president of the fraternity, be the person to get a room to himself? then, frankie could just take his bed in zach's room. not that frankie wouldn’t settle for bunking with _both_ of them, because he would.

frankie smiles. “or i could just move in with you two. i wouldn’t even need to bring my bed!”

“i’m up for it, frank.” cody drinks from his mug of coffee.

zach glares and frankie feels his arm possessively coming up to the back of frankie’s chair.

“damn, after frankie got here, i’m the only straight guy left on campus,” hayden jokes, riffling through his backpack for something.

“hey, what the fuck do i look like?” zach asks with resentment.

frankie sees hayden look up at them, his eyes trailing over the two of them. frankie has his hand on zach’s knee and zach’s arm is loosely resting on the back of frankie’s chair.

hayden purses his lips like he wants to say something, but just chuckles, then walks out of the room.

“that guy is insightful as fuck,” cody says, nodding to himself. “if derrick cans me for not being able to cram all the new pledges in here, you guys need to elect hayden as president.”

zach rolls his eyes. “relax, bro. just double everybody up. triple them up if you have to.”

“or maybe you could do some sort of scary initiation to get some of them to quit,” frankie suggests, “like one of those fake satanic rituals.”

“nah,” cody says, “that wouldn’t scare any jews.”

“what _does_ scare jews?” frankie asks curiously.

zach snorts. "writing a movie script for a character that _won't_ be played by seth rogen."

cody’s eyes widen like he’s just come up with an idea. “maybe we could haze them! like, tell them they have to suck our dicks to get a room!”

“what the hell?” frankie asks in mock offense. “that’s not _fair_! why didn’t you make _me_ suck anybody off to get my own room?”

“oh, is that not what happened anyway with you two?” cody smirks.

frankie wiggles his eyebrows and tries to grope zach from under the table, but zach yelps and curls over on himself, trying to grab frankie’s hands to keep them away from his crotch, laughing loudly all the while.

"that reminds me," frankie starts, stabbing his pancake with his fork to cut off a bite, "that prank you guys pulled sending me that card from-" he pauses to raise his hands to use air quotes, "-'kappa kappa gamma' wasn't very funny."

cody and zach look at him curiously. "what prank?" they ask at the same time.

* * *

so, frankie is a little obsessed with zach. he thinks it’s probably because he’s not used to guys like zach. all of his exes have treated him horribly, either by cheating on him or verbally demeaning him, and zach is so different that it makes frankie obsess over every interaction they have, trying to figure out if zach is being so kind to him for any other reason than just because he’s a good friend.

zach stays up all night partying with his friends, which is totally something any of frankie’s exes would do, except for the fact that the next morning he never blows frankie off like they would have. he brings frankie coffee before frankie has class, early in the morning, before he’s even slept yet. he’ll have under eye bags and look exhausted and every time frankie wishes that he didn’t have class himself, so he could drag zach back to the house and make sure zach fits a nap in before drinking again.

winter in florida is not exactly insufferable, although frankie can’t say he likes the fact that the fireplace is the only real heat source in the house. he has a slight problem with his circulation and often finds his fingers going numb at night even when it’s not that chilly. he likes to stay awake with zach on the couch in front of the fireplace as long as possible before going to bed because zach is so much warmer than he is.

“dude, your hands are freezing,” zach notices one late afternoon when most of their brothers have class, “put them under the blanket.”

they haven’t really specified where the lines are in their relationship, if you could call it that, but he knows zach would pretty much let him get away with murder. when he sneaks his hands under the blanket, he palms zach over his sweatpants and gently rubs him for a few seconds just to see zach’s reaction.

zach just looks at him, grinning and raising his eyebrow. “you’re always so horny, dude!”

frankie sighs grumpily. “just let me jerk you off _really_ quick under the blanket.”

zach groans. “that’s not a good idea.”

“so...really _slow_ under the blanket?" frankie suggests.

"frankie!" zach says, shaking his head in disbelief. "nothing is gonna happen under the blanket."

frankie feels himself pouting. "what about _over_ the blanket?"

"you do realize you're touching my dick on the _living room_ couch, right?" zach asks, folding his hands in his lap condescendingly.

frankie nods. "you're right. this is inappropriate. i didn't realize you only like me touching your dick in the attic."

zach goes beet red and covers his eyes with his hands. "we were drunk! and alone!"

"we're alone right now," frankie points out, ignoring the fact that he _knows_ zach meant that anybody could walk right in. his hand runs back up zach's thigh under the blanket. he squeezes it gently. "just tell me to stop, zach."

he watches zach close his eyes and bite his lip when he lightly squeezes zach's dick over his sweatpants. his dick strains against the waistband, so frankie helps zach yank his sweatpants down to his knees. the blanket still conceals what frankie is doing, but he prefers to watch zach's face as he jerks him off, anyway.

frankie grins. "you can tell me to stop _any_ time."

zach says nothing, but licks his lips and drops his head to the back of the couch. he looks like he's enjoying himself, so frankie continues smugly, carefully slipping his hand under zach's sweatpants. when frankie discovers something's missing, he feels his mouth actually go dry with how much he wants to blow zach, but knows zach would probably freak out because there's no way to conceal that if someone _did_ come home from class early.

"really, zach?" he asks, feigning disinterest. "no underwear? did you _want_ me notice that? such a tease." he thinks about zach purposefully walking around the house in his sweatpants and no underwear, hoping that frankie would see and take pity on him. frankie finally wraps his hand around zach and pumps slowly, watching zach's mouth part just a little so he can suck in a deep breath.

god, straight boys are the _easiest_ , frankie thinks. everything is so hot to them because they feel like they're breaking the laws of nature or something when they hook up with another guy, whether because they feel like they're rebelling against their parents or against themselves.

"i'm sorry if i've been sending you mixed signals," zach says quietly, with his eyes still closed.

frankie looks up in surprise. that was the last thing he was expecting to come out of zach's mouth. frankie wants to stop jerking him off and discuss this, but he figures if he stops touching him, zach might become too reserved again to continue the conversation.

"that's okay," frankie answers honestly, "i can read you like a book."

zach scoffs. "you have a huge ego."

" _you_ feel pretty huge, actually," frankie says conversationally, because he knows straight guys like being told they're big. or, truth be told, _guys_ in general.

zach groans accordingly. " _frankie_."

frankie chuckles, sliding his hand down zach's shaft. he pauses to slide zach's precum around the head, but he feels some of it wettening the blanket over frankie's hand. when zach shoots, the blanket will probably catch everything for him.

frankie pumps his hand harder, fist tightening, and he can feel zach’s legs tensing under the arm he's resting on zach's inner thigh. zach starts making whining noises like it's not quite enough, and his legs part so wide that frankie's arm falls between the gap.

"if you spread your legs any wider they'll snap," frankie laughs.

"whatever," zach says, his face going pink. frankie continues to jerk him off, the blanket luckily catching the wetness coming from the head, and frankie can see a small damp spot going through the blanket from zach's precum.

zach finally fists the fabric of frankie's tee shirt to warn frankie when he's about to shoot, face scrunching up adorably. the blanket gets wet and the whole couch maybe smells a little like sex. frankie wishes zach would have let him suck him off, so no evidence would have been left.

before frankie can tell zach to pull his sweats back up so he can fold the blanket to take to the washing machine, hayden bursts through the front door. zach immediately slumps down as far as he can on the couch like he's been sleeping. frankie carefully folds his hands above the blanket so it doesn't look suspicious. 

"hey, guys," hayden says, sounding exhausted. "fucking anderson always canceling class last minute." he barely passes them a glance as he walks over to the staircase. "gonna meet up with nicole at the bar over on park street. you guys wanna go?"

frankie smiles up innocently at hayden as hayden pauses on the fourth step of the staircase. "yeah, tell nicole to bring back the body glitter she borrowed from me."

hayden snorts. "i'll tell her."

when hayden's footsteps fade away, zach finally stops faking sleep. he opens only one eye and looks at frankie with humiliation written on his face.

"how many rooms do i get you off in before you ask me on a date?" frankie asks with a chuckle.

zach winces guiltily and playfully shoves frankie's shoulder. he looks down into frankie's lap and laughs. "sorry, dude."

frankie shrugs, bringing one hand down to re-adjust himself in his jeans. "i'll take care of it later."

he watches zach's eyes go dark and he hopes zach is turned on by the idea of frankie masturbating thinking about him. he has a feeling that if zach would have let him get away with murder before this, now he would let frankie get away with nuclear warfare.

* * *

when they get to the bar, only ten minutes away from campus, hayden drags nicole off to the karaoke machine, so frankie follows zach up to the bar, only to wish he had gone over with hayden and nicole to sing bad joan jett covers.

" _shit_ ," frankie spits out, looking behind the bar. "i used to date him."

zach whips his head around, wide-eyed, but ends up looking at an aging bald man nursing a beer at the bar. zach starts to laugh, like he thinks frankie was making a joke, until the bartender turns around and reveals himself, buzzcut and tattoos on either arm probably intimidating zach.

" _that_ guy?" zach asks in disbelief. " _he's_ gay?"

frankie can understand. he hadn't really thought caleb was gay until he that day in the gym when he'd asked frankie to spot for him even though there was obviously no way frankie could have held the hundred pound weights up if caleb had slipped. he had just been trying to show off, and sadly, frankie had been impressed. he came on weirdly romantic until they started sleeping together and then became a total nightmare, constantly calling and texting frankie and accusing him of sleeping around...which he _was_. because they weren't really _dating_. that relationship had ended on a sour note after frankie had finally had enough and threatened to file a restraining order.

of course he had never actually gone through with filing it, but he sort of wishes he had now, so caleb would be required to _leave_.

"hey, grande," caleb says with a miscehvious grin. "i was wondering when you'd come in."

frankie furrows his eyebrows. how did caleb know he would come to this bar? "do you go to school at the university of florida?" he asks, already dreading the answer.

caleb grins and spreads his arms out wide in the way insecure guys do when they want everyone to think their confidence is real. "that's not all! kappa kappa gamma, baby!"

frankie rolls his eyes and starts to discretely tug at zach's shirt sleeve, signaling to him that they should find a table far, far away from the bar.

"who's this clown?" caleb asks, folding his arms over his chest, and looking at zach with squinted eyes.

"this is my frat brother, zach," frankie introduces him nervously. he doesn't want caleb to think zach is his boyfriend and, like, smash a beer bottle over his head, or something.

"oh, yeah? no frat brother is as tough as beastmode," caleb promises, flexing his muscles in his sleeveless vest.

zach chokes on a laugh from beside frankie, shoulders shaking with mirth. " _beastmode_?" he repeats under his breath. "is this guy _serious_?"

frankie elbows zach to get him to shut up. god, that's _all_ they need, caleb to overhear zach and try to rope him into a brawl.

"i heard you pledged zeta beta tau. that fraternity ain't shit. did you get my sympathy card?"

frankie feels the air go out of him like he just got punched. "that was _you_?" he briefly considers fleeing the bar, the school, and the country.

"course it was me! did you see how good my calligraphy was?" caleb brags.

frankie starts to tug zach away again, but finally works up the nerve to tell caleb off first. "don't send me anything else," frankie warns with a steely glare, "or i really _will_ file a restraining order this time."

"you _dated_ that guy?" zach asks as they start walking away.

frankie shrugs. "more like friends with benefits until he started stalking me."

they sit down at a table in the corner of the bar, furthest from the karaoke machine, so they can hear each other talk. zach sits down across from frankie and has a look on his face that reads like a kicked puppy, maybe because he and zach are more or less friends with benefit too, and he probably doesn't want to end up as another one of frankie's crazy ex-boyfriend stories. after a minute of stewing, zach says, "you slept with him?" he looks deflated and heartbroken and frankie almost laughs, because there's absolutely nothing for zach to be worried about.

"must you _remind_ me," frankie asks with a playful smile. couldn't zach see how head over heels he was for him? how _little_ he cares about caleb's existence, in this bar right now or otherwise?

"why'd you date him?" zach pries.

frankie snorts. " _zach_." he squints and gives zach a meaningful look. "caleb was good in bed, i mean _really_ good in bed, but he's a horrible person. i'm not interested in him."

zach frowns when frankie says caleb was good in bed, slumping down in his wooden chair and glaring at the table. "i don't care how many raw eggs he ate for breakfast this morning, i'll kick his _ass_!"

frankie grins. "you do that. oh, and remember to get the bud light when you go to the bar. you know regular budweiser gives you heartburn."

zach frowns again, deflated. "whatever. i'm gonna go try to find hayden and nicole and get them to come over."

frankie sighs as he watches zach walk away. he really shouldn't have put up with so many losers just because they happened to be good in bed, but he hadn't known that only a few short years later he'd wind up with a guy like zach, who's literally the sweetest guy he's ever met, even if they aren't _together_ exactly. frankie doesn't even want to think of how sweet zach would be if they _were_ , but the thought puts butterflies in his stomach.

* * *

three days later, frankie comes home to a bedroom that looks like a hurricane went through it. his mattress has been thrown clean off his bed and across the other side of the room. his closet has hardly anything still hung up in it, the clothes scattered all over the bedroom floor.

he can't find anything missing, not even the money from his wallet, so this couldn't have been about anyone thinking he would have expensive shit to steal, which leads him to believe it was caleb.

also, the cowboy hat strategically placed on his doorknob led him to believe it was caleb, with a note inside that reads, again in messy cursive, _leave zeta beta tau_ , and is signed off as being from _- ~~caleb.~~ kappa kappa gamma._

he realizes his window is wide open and he frantically races over to close it and make sure the latch is locked. what kind of sociopath would actually climb up to a second story bedroom and crawl through the window? it's late afternoon and zach is in class until eight at night and frankie feels overwhelmingly _unsafe_  being in his bedroom alone, so he decides to sit on the couch in the living room and wait for zach to get back.

he's terrified of what caleb will do if frankie doesn't leave the fraternity until he realizes caleb has few skills that are legitimately scary - one being how scarily terrible his rap game is (surprisingly enough, kentucky raised white guys who failed the ninth grade aren't actually very good at rhyming on the spot). the other being the truly underappreciated skill of skinning deer and rabbits. neither of these skills will be very applicable to a school board meeting should caleb take his issue with frankie being in zeta beta tau up a level, not unless he plans on starting a rap battle with the dean of admissions.

frankie supposes he could tell cody about the threatening letter he received from caleb, because cody _is_ the president of his fraternity, but he knows all cody would tell him to do would be to tattle to the school board. frankie doesn't really want to do that - it would just seem like the school was playing favorites if they helped him out, especially because he really _shouldn't_ be in the fraternity since he isn't jewish. 

when zach finally gets back from class, frankie has given up on predicting scenarios and is half asleep on the couch. he just wants to sleep for the next two years and wake up the day he can transfer out to some school in new york. preferably, in this dream scenario, zach and he will be engaged by then. frankie always has liked to dream big.

"why aren't you in your bed?" zach asks, his backpack still slung over his shoulder. he looks down at frankie in concern. "you look exhausted."

"i am," frankie mutters sleepily. "i'm just going to stay here."

"frankie, you're laying on broken pretzels pieces. c'mon, you can't sleep here." he reaches down and hauls frankie up by his shoulders.

frankie sighs, feeling like a baby. "i don't want to be in my room. can i just stay with you and cody tonight?"

zach frowns. "yeah, sure. did you have a nightmare or something?"

"you could say that," frankie mutters.

"what do you mean?" zach drops his bag on the couch and looks at frankie, waiting.

frankie sighs. he doesn't really want to explain and make zach think dating him would be so awful that you have to seek revenge for it some three years later. "no reason, really. i just got kind of nervous after seeing my ex again."

zach purses his lips. "are you not telling me something?"

"can we just go to bed? i'm so tired." he leans forward until he can rest his head on zach's chest.

zach rubs his back patiently, resting his chin on frankie's shoulder. "yeah. you want to sleep with me or with cody?"

frankie lifts his head up from zach's chest and gives him a very serious look. "that depends. i usually give people i sleep with head while i'm unconscious."

zach grins. "better sleep with me, then." he keeps his hands on frankie's shoulder, guiding him up the stairs and down the hall, opposite from the direction where frankie's room is.

frankie's heart pangs with how much it means to him that zach would let him stay with him without even questioning what happened. he wants to say that he's just grateful to have a friend like zach, but something twists nervously in his stomach those times where zach flirts with him back, and he doesn't want zach to be the one that got away.

for this reason alone, he knows he shouldn't bother zach with all of his ex-boyfriend drama. the way to win a new boy over is not to show him how crazy all of your exes are. he crawls into bed with zach and decides that the next day he'll just tell him he was paranoid for no reason and nothing happened to make him worried.

the next morning frankie wakes up with his face pressed in between zach's shoulder blades and zach and cody are both awake and having some kind of quiet, sleepy conversation about _puppies_ from their separate beds. frankie props himself up on his elbows to look over zach's back.

cody jumps. "frank, what the hell! you just scared the shit out of me!"

frankie laughs loudly and watches zach roll over on his stomach so he can hide his face in his pillow, probably embarrassed.

cody looks over at them skeptically. "tell me you _didn't_. not while i was right here dreaming about being on the beach with mila kunis and playing with a hundred puppy dogs." zach snorts and throws one of his pillows at cody's head.

frankie laughs and hooks one arm over zach's waist, wiggling his eyebrows at cody. "we can play that game, coh-dee," he says in his signature marilyn monroe voice. "you can both be my puppy dogs. the safe word can either be _purina_ or _iams_." he throws himself onto zach's back, playfully biting the backs of his shoulders.

zach squirms beneath him, trying to buck him off. "iams! iams! iams!"

cody yawns, rolling back over to go back to sleep. "and my dad asks me why being in a frat is so homoerotic."

* * *

the next night, zach crawls into bed with him again. they'd ordered pizza to the house and had also been drinking beer. well, _frankie_ hadn't been drinking beer because he has _taste_ , but zach had. this time zach comes to frankie's room instead of them being in zach's room with cody, and frankie wonders if maybe zach wants the privacy to fool around.

frankie can't see him in the dark, but he _can_ hear the painful silence of what's left of zach's heterosexuality literally disintegrating like liza minelli's career after being in the second sex and the city movie.

frankie snorts. "if you're going to sleep here, you need to do me a favor first."

there's a long bout of silence before zach very seriously says, "i'm not sucking your dick, dude."

frankie playfully punches zach's shoulder. "can you please get me a glass of water from the kitchen?"

zach groans. "no. it's bedtime."

frankie glares even though he knows zach won't be able to tell. "fine, but when i come back with my water, i'm kicking you out." he slowly pulls back the covers and sits upright, sliding his legs over the side of the mattress so his feet touch the floor.

he feels zach's hand reach out and wrap around his wrist, trying to tug him back to bed. frankie flops back down onto his pillow, feeling his fingers intertwining with zach's in the dark.

"um, zach?" frankie says, chuckling, "is this _you_ or your gay evil twin?"

"shut up!" zach huffs, sounding offended that frankie would consider zach basically holding his hand in bed to be a little less than heterosexual. "aren't we best friends? why can't i hold your hand?"

frankie sighs. "you _can_. c'mon, come sleep on me."

zach drapes himself over frankie, pillowing his head on his chest sweetly. he hears zach exhale loudly and he knows zach is probably feeling a little emasculated for wanting to be held, so he gingerly cards his hand through zach's hair to let him know it's okay.

"i'm still thirsty," frankie complains after a few minutes of playing with zach's hair. "i'm getting up to get water in ten minutes." he uses his nails to lightly trace over zach's spine and zach immediately shivers in response.

"twenty," zach corrects, burrowing his face practically into frankie's armpit, obviously enjoying frankie touching him.

"yeah?" frankie confirms. "you want me to keep snuggling you?" he slides one hand to zach's lower back and his fingertips pause at zach's boxer briefs.

zach says nothing, as per usual, but his palm that was flat on frankie's chest makes a loose fist by frankie's side. he shuffles around a little on top of frankie, seemingly for no particular reason besides to silently agree that yes, he _does_ want frankie to keep touching him.

frankie slips his hand down zach's ass and spreads his palm flat across zach's cheek to squeeze it, privately finding it funny that zach is probably the most easily tamed frat boy to ever live. he feels zach tense slightly on his chest, but otherwise makes no move to separate himself from frankie.

"why'd you come in here, anyway?" frankie asks softly. "is this what you wanted to happen?"

zach's swallow seems very loud in the quietness of the room and his hand uncurls and grips frankie's arm tightly. " _frankie_ ," he stresses, and frankie thinks he can translate that as a _yes_. he's in way too deep with this one and he hates that he can read zach's signals so well sometimes.

"is this _all_ you wanted?" frankie mutters almost more to himself than zach.

zach's chin digs into frankie's chest and he inhales sharply. "yes. i don't want - i _do_ , but not right now." his voice is so quiet and unlike zach that frankie feels suddenly fiercely protective of him and his apparent innocence.

frankie slides his hand out of zach's underwear and rubs zach's back with it for a few minutes until his exhaustion takes over. he falls sleep feeling even more attached to zach, but also more frustrated with him. he's afraid he wants more from zach than zach will be willing to give.

* * *

“i'm not in love with a straight guy,” he tells his reflection in the mirror the next morning after he's stepped out of the shower that he's just jacked off in. to thoughts of having sex with zach? _maybe_. but it's not love, it's definitely lust. mixed with warm, fuzzy feelings of maybe indigestion from his bacon pizza last night, but definitely not love.

he pads back down the hallway to his bedroom with bare feet, careful as to not wake anybody. all the bedroom doors are still shut from last night, meaning everybody is probably hungover and still trying to recover.

when frankie opens the door to his room, he finds zach in his bed wearing only his gray boxer briefs. "hey, man. is anybody up yet, or is it safe to leave?"

frankie looks at him in disbelief. "you're sneaking out of my room after spending the _night_ together? this is a new low."

" _what_?" zach says, looking at frankie like he's the crazy one. "we just slept! what are you talking about?"

"zach, you held my hand in bed, crawled on top of me, and let me grope you." frankie stands unabashedly at the foot of the bed, his hands on his hips. his towel that he put on after his shower might not be wrapped very tightly around his waist and he's afraid the impact of his words won't be as good if it falls off mid-argument. he realizes they're sort of bickering like an old, married couple, and he wants to strangle zach for being so obtuse.

zach goes pink, but shrugs like he's not visibly embarrassed, which he is. "that's not - i'm not _gay_."

"you're like a _groundhog_ ," frankie snarls, "you can't just spend the night with me and then crawl out in the morning and pretend you didn't see your shadow!"

zach balks. "my shadow? what does that even _mean_?"

"it means maybe you aren't gay, but you are _something_ ," frankie stresses, tapping his foot impatiently.

"yeah," zach snides, "i'm _late_." he gets out of bed quickly, turning his back on frankie. he starts looking around the room for, presumably, his pants, before realizing he didn't wear any when he snuck into frankie's room. "i didn't know it was already noon. i have class," he grumbles angrily.

frankie bites his lip to keep from bursting out into laughter, because he's sure if he let himself laugh, zach would not be happy. he playfully tugs at the knot that holds his towel snug around his waist like he's about to drop it. "if you don't get out of here soon, something really _gay_ might happen," he jokes, amused by zach trying to hurry out like the place is on fire.

zach rolls his eyes. "doubt it," he says, missing the intended humor and going straight on the defensive. he says it like he's never done a gay thing in his whole _life_ , never mind last night.

frankie is rarely, if ever, this annoyed with zach. he kind of wants to kick him out of his room and slam the door in his face, just to prove a point. there's nothing cute about zach's predictable cycle of gay panics.

frankie swings the door open quickly, not realizing his own strength, and sticks out one arm to gesture zach to leave. unfortunately for zach, the door bangs loudly against the wall and, in the dead silence of the early morning, it's deafening.

" _frankie_!" zach yelps.

frankie winces. okay, he never meant to do that. even if he _is_ angry with zach, he's not looking to out zach to their entire fraternity.

first, it's just one door across the hall that opens. it's two freshmen, squinting blearily into the morning light. they don't seem to process the strangeness of seeing frankie standing there in his towel with a slippery wet chest while zach stands behind him in his boxer briefs and no shirt.

then, hayden's head pokes out from behind another door. with a languid stretch of his arms and a yawn, he points his finger joyfully, " _hey_!" he smiles widely. "walk of shame, bro!"

frankie pinches the bridge of his nose, leaning against the door frame. he knows it's already too late to run back into his room. hayden will just text everyone. he's better off staying in the open and playing it off like it's some funny mix-up.

more guys start poking their heads out of their doors. frankie hears a scattered " _why the hell are we all up_?" and " _what's going on_?" the majority of the floor ventures out into the hall and slowly, recovering from their deep slumbers, seem to realize what the fuss is about. cody has since joined hayden in the hallway, both of them laughing so hard they're bent over and can't speak.

zach's face is so red it looks like he just ran from one side of campus to the other. frankie winces and raises one hand to pat zach's bare back awkwardly. zach looks nearly suicidal, so it becomes plainly obvious to frankie that they can't joke their way out of this one. not with last night's events written all over zach's guilty face. frankie thinks zach probably should have just let frankie actually get him off last night, just so all of this humiliation would be deserved.

frankie accidentally lets out a chuckle and zach looks at him murderously. "sorry, honey," frankie smirks, leaning up on his tip-toes to kiss zach's cheek.

"get it, rance!" a sophomore bellows jokingly. "hell yeah!"

zach scrubs one hand over his face in embarrassment and starts awkwardly shuffling down the hallway, past all the cackling guys shouting out " _walk of shame! walk of shame_!"

"high five, bro?" cody asks, with one palm in the air.

zach ignores him. hayden stops him with one gentle hand on his shoulder. in a soft, but still audible voice, he says, "hey, put a sock on the door next time?"

frankie watches zach sheepishly walk away with slumped shoulders. he's tempted to run after zach and comfort him, but figures that would send the wrong message. as much as he regrets waking up the whole house, he doesn't really see what the big deal is. everybody pretty much already _knew_ , or at least _suspected_. at least this way zach has a funny story to tell people one day.

* * *

come spring, frankie still hasn't told anybody about what had happened with caleb breaking into his room. he wants to - he knows there could be a second attack coming any day now, since he obviously still hasn't left the fraternity. it's just that he doesn't like the idea of tattling to the school board and he doesn't know if they would take him seriously anyway.

he waits until he knows zach has headed off to class one late morning to go and find cody and ask him if the school board would help him.

"are you awake?" frankie asks, shaking cody's shoulders in bed.

cody jerks back in surprise. "dude, wrong bed. he's over there." he points over to the other bed, which is currently empty. he frowns when he sees that zach isn't there.

"no, i need to talk to _you_ , actually," frankie explains. "can we keep something between us? i don't think zach needs to know - it would just upset him."

" _woah, woah, woah_!" cody covers up his bare chest with his sheet and scoots up to lean against his headboard. he raises both hands over his head like he's being arrested. "look, i'm very flattered! i really am, okay, bro? you're totally hot, frankie. it's just that zach is my best friend-"

frankie scowls. "i am _not_ hitting on you! i need your advice as president of the fraternity!"

" _oh_ ," cody says, breathing a sigh of relief. "cool. okay, shoot." he reaches over to his bedside table and yanks on a beanie.

frankie glares. he can't believe cody thinks so highly of himself to assume frankie would hit on him, not to mention to think that frankie would betray zach like that. or, maybe _betray_ isn't exactly the right word. you can't cheat on someone who you aren't dating. he and zach still aren't _technically_ an item. everyone knew they hooked up every once in a while, but zach still acted like they didn't. it was weird and frankie wishes he could talk to someone who zach might have divulged information to.

"wait," frankie pauses, realizing who he's sitting with, "while you're here...."

"you came in _here_ ," cody corrects with fear in his eyes, like he needs for frankie to have the story straight should zach find out. 

frankie rolls his eyes. "what does zach say about me?" he can't help but nervously fold his hands in his lap and bite his lip.

cody sighs very dramatically and pulls on his beanie in what is probably a nervous tick. "i shouldn't really - i mean zach's my best friend, you know?"

"cody, _please_ ," frankie begs. "just tell me _one_ thing zach has said about me and then i'll get back to the reason why i wanted to talk to you."

cody squints and stares off into space like he's trying to remember things that zach has said. he seems to think of something, but makes a face like he just ate a sour lemon, and shakes his head to himself.

"what?" frankie asks with dread. "is it bad?"

"bad like it will hurt your feelings or bad like _really_ kinky amatuer porn?" cody asks, playing with his beanie again and wincing.

frankie furrows his eyebrows and snaps at him. "i don't know, cody. you tell _me_."

"he says lots of things!" cody shrugs. "you know zach! he says crazy shit all the time!"

frankie frowns. "well, how bad is it?" he wants to cry. why else would cody be so secretive unless it was truly _awful_ and heartbreaking? what if zach had just been flirting with him and telling him he loved frankie just to get hand jobs? "just tell me."

"okay," cody exhales loudly. "he said he wants to fuck you in his parents' house. it's like this weird fantasy of his. like, he wants his mom to hear, so she'll stop setting him up with all those girls." he eyes frankie apprehensively, as if expecting him to freak out.

frankie's mouth drops open. " _that's_ it? _that's_ the awful thing zach told you?" he pulls on cody's sheet until his arms and chest are exposed and punches cody in his arm. "that's adorable!"

cody winces in pain. "it _is_?"

"of course! he must like me a _lot_ if he wants his mom to know we're sleeping together!" frankie exclaims happily.

cody looks vaguely traumatized by the entire conversation, so frankie finally lets it go and tells cody about caleb.

* * *

"my mom thinks we're dating," zach says as he walks with hayden and frankie down holland street, just a few blocks away from campus. they're coming back from a bookstore zach needed to go to for research for his economics paper.

"she _does_ ," hayden confirms, nodding to frankie. "she told me last night."

zach elbows hayden sharply in the ribs, glaring. "my mother is a married woman."

hayden laughs. "no, seriously, though. cody told me even the _dean_ asked if you two were together."

frankie tries to think about this rationally. if the dean knows frankie is sort of with zach, wouldn't that information have come from cody? he hopes cody already talked to him, in case caleb tries something.

"the  _dean_  thinks i'm dating frankie?" zach groans. "at least then none of the guys on the board will try to steal my man." he casually throws his arm around frankie's shoulder and tickles his sides to let him know he doesn't really care what they think.

"derrick thinks it," hayden nods, holding out his hand to tick more people off each finger, "so does our entire frat house, at least half the school faculty, and i'm pretty sure _that_ girl crossing the street thinks it." he points to a twenty-something blonde watching zach touching frankie, shooting them a knowing smile.

"the faculty only thinks zach and i are dating because i told my theater coach that i had a boyfriend in a fraternity so he would stop hitting on me," frankie explains very seriously. "also, i told him my boyfriend's name is zach rance and he's a tall brunette with neanderthal features."

"well, if everyone thinks we're already dating, we might as _well_ ," zach suggests, rubbing frankie's shoulder with his arm still around him.

frankie glares. "the sad part is, i can't tell if you're serious or _kidding_."

hayden chuckles at zach. "bro, that was beautiful. say it again, but this time try to work up a tear."

"fuck off!" zach moans. "don't you have somewhere to be? the yankee candle store with nicole, or antiquing with her for tea cozies, or something _else_ boring people do?"

hayden raises his hand to his head like a soldier being sent off to duty before taking the hint and leaving them alone. frankie watches him jog away and waits for him to get to a hot dog stand on the corner before deciding to press zach further on the matter.

"does your mother think we're dating because you _told_ her we are?" frankie asks carefully.

zach tries to change the subject. "those hot dogs are _stupid_ expensive. hayden's an idiot for buying one."

" _zach_ ," frankie prompts, " _tell me_."

zach purses his lips. "well, i mean, maybe two hand jobs a week doesn't equal dating, but she wanted to know why i talk about you so much, and i couldn't really mention the hand jobs."

frankie grins. "you talk about me to _everyone_ , don't you? first hayden, then cody, now your mom..."

zach pales nervously. "i don't talk to cody about you ever. never in my life."

frankie stands up on his tip toes and kisses his cheek. "do you want me to tell you what he said?"

zach laughs. "no, i really don't." he pulls out his cell phone and looks at it for so long that he almost walks into a parked car beside an apartment complex, typing madly on the screen. 

"who are you talking to?" frankie asks, craning his head to look over zach's phone. 

zach quickly shoves it into his pocket. "peyton. i'm picking him up from school tomorrow and spending the day with him." 

frankie frowns. "oh, that sounds fun." he wonders to himself why zach would be hiding his texts with his brother from him. 

* * *

"you deserve _one_ night off."

"i already took my adhd pills to focus on my reading," zach stresses, rubbing tiredly at his temples. he probably has a headache.

frankie bats zach's hands down and gently massages zach's temples for him. "i can think of other things for you to focus on. like _me_ ," he says sweetly.

zach hums. "trust me, i'd love to, dude, but i have to finish reading at least through chapter twelve tonight."

frankie frowns. he hates not having zach's full attention. usually it's so easy to come by because frankie is a performer even doing mundane things, like folding his laundry, and zach loves to watch him perform, but these past few weeks have been empty of cuddles or kisses completely due to finals. frankie's finished two days ago, but zach has three more days left of them and frankie is sick of zach not noticing him.

he scoots up closer behind zach and wraps his legs tightly around zach's waist, his feet meeting at zach's lap. he kisses the back of zach's neck softly, then runs his hands over  
zach's chest. “let’s get out of here,” frankie coaxes him like they're in a crowded club instead the half deserted library they're actually in.

"frankie, stop kissing me!" zach scolds. "i haven't had time to touch myself in, like, two weeks and you're not helping."

frankie’s eyes widen and he grins at zach mischievously. “well, i have plenty of time.” he rucks up zach’s shirt with one hand and trails his fingers back and forth above the waistband of zach’s shorts.

"do you want me to fail my classes?" zach asks with a laugh, moving frankie's hand away.

frankie pouts. "of course not. i just want to have sex with you."

zach stiffens in frankie’s arms. “ _tonight_?” he asks in shock, going pink. then, softer, he says, “you said you would blow me if i passed all my exams.”

"is _that_ why you’ve been working so hard?” frankie tugs sharply at zach’s hair, getting impatient. “i’d let you fuck me if you came home right now,” he whispers hotly into zach’s ear.

zach groans. "don't tell me that. you're distracting me," he warns.

frankie grins. "c'mon, zach," frankie says with exasperation. "i would feel so much better than your hand. don't you want to go into the bathroom with me right now instead of waiting until tonight after cody falls asleep so you can jerk off?"

zach shakes his head no, but shivers when frankie lowers his head to nuzzle the back of zach's neck. "not the bathroom. somewhere else."

"my bed. we'll make it an early night and i'll help you study in the morning," frankie suggests warmly, melting against zach's back because he senses zach coming around to the the idea.

"i can honestly say this is the first time i've gotten hard while looking at a picture of napoleon bonaparte," zach says dryly, shutting the cover of his book.

frankie smiles in accomplishment. "yeah, you look more like a mussolini man."

zach giggles and elbows him lightly.

* * *

frankie can always tell when zach has taken his pills, because he talks even faster than usual, and gets distracted so easily that you can barely hold a conversation with him. it admittedly helps him with his homework, but this isn't exactly the zach he planned on having pound him into his mattress. he might have to slightly alter the itinerary for the evening.

zach jumps into a conversation cody and some of the freshmen are having in the living room, talking while his hands make huge gestures in the air, and frankie rolls his eyes at him fondly from the kitchen as he rummages through all the drawers for condoms.

when he finally manages to pull zach away, he barely gets his bedroom door shut before zach's pushing frankie up against it and licking into his mouth. frankie groans appreciatively, sliding his thigh up against zach like the first time they hooked up, and zach moans.

"oh my god, dude." zach presses his hips into frankie's, but frankie senses zach's lack of focus when he pulls back and looks like he's forgotten where he is.

"okay," frankie says, huffing, "we're gonna slow this down." he gently pushes zach backwards with one hand until he's sitting on the edge of frankie's bed, his knees jittering a little.

"i don't have any condoms on me!" zach suddenly says, wide-eyed, and he goes to bolt for the door.

frankie rolls his eyes and pushes him back down into a sitting position. "i have one. just sit still for a minute."

zach looks like this command might be hard for him to follow. "can i take off my pants?"

"fine," frankie says, "but leave your underwear on."

when frankie finally finds his lube, he has zach lay flat on his back and keep his hands to himself as frankie gets undressed and finally straddles zach completely naked, while  
zach squirms under him in his underwear, trying not to move his hands.

he sits down playfully over zach's lap while he fiddles with the lube, pretending not to notice the way zach's mouth parts and his hips piston up accidentally.

" _zach_ ," frankie tuts, paying him no attention as he gets two fingers covered.

"i'm so hard, frankie. _please_ , just let me get on top of you?" he whines.

frankie laughs. "nope. you've been going ninety miles an hour for the past two weeks. i just want you to lay back and relax."

zach dejectedly drops his head back down to the pillow under his head, but frankie can feel him straining not to jerk his hips up against frankie's ass and it's turning him on to see zach look so helpless.

he takes pity on zach and scoots further down on his lap so he can feel zach against him better. as soon as he sees zach leaking through his underwear he can't help but grind down on him, and zach grabs frankie's hips and groans, rubbing them together harder. frankie momentarily loses his interest in making zach stay still and lets zach pull him flat down on his chest and kiss him.

frankie relaxes as he kisses zach, everything chaste at first. eventually, he eggs zach on by grabbing one of his hands and bringing it the back of his thighs. he forgets zach hasn't ever fingered him before, so he's not surprised when zach slides his hands down to frankie's ass to grope him instead. zach's hips are already stuttering a little against frankie's and frankie knows he needs to get zach to stop moving if he wants this to go anywhere.

he sits back up straight on zach's lap and starts to finger himself open, gently, because he's done this part a million times since meeting zach, but hasn't actually taken a dick since then. when he's stopped feeling the pressure of it, he takes his fingers back out and helps zach slide his underwear off.

zach's dick is pink and almost pulses in frankie's hand when he goes to spread lube on it. zach tries to help, but frankie slaps his hands away and does it himself, trying not to laugh at the way zach gasps just from frankie touching him.

when frankie guides the head inside him, he stops breathing, and finally lets out a huge breath when zach is all the way inside. he lets himself have a few moments to adjust, ignoring the way zach's eyes are practically rolling back in his head, before he starts moving slowly up and down. frankie hums happily. he could do this for hours probably, maybe even days, if time allowed.

zach, on the other hand, makes a strangled sort of sobbing noise. "can i -" he asks, his hands grabbing frankie's hips. zach rolls his hips up and frankie feels his prostate finally, a hot tingly sensation that nearly whites out his vision. frankie nods against his better judgement, wanting to feel it again, although he knows zach is already close.

zach's hips raise right off the bed as he fucks up into frankie, his knees coming up on either side of frankie. he can hold up the majority of frankie's weight himself and frankie scrambles to grab zach's shoulders to keep his balance.

"you feel so good," zach gasps, and comes inside frankie in the same breath.

frankie's dick is straining against his stomach and he wishes he could be surprised that zach came prematurely. "next time _you're_ bottoming."

"what if i get really good grades back on my finals?" zach pants. "then can i top again?"

frankie laughs. "you can top tomorrow morning. i'll put my bagel in the toaster, come let you fuck me, and you'll be done before the bagel is ready."

"fuck you!" zach laughs. he slides his hands over frankie's thighs, sighing. "do you want me to get you off?"

frankie grins. "yeah, but just to warn you, it might take me longer than thirty seconds."

zach uses frankie's jokes at his expense as motivation to finger him open a little too quickly. his fingers are much thinner and longer than frankie's and when zach gets two fingers inside him, frankie falls forward and shoves his face into the crook of zach's neck. he tries to move back on zach's fingers, but the angle is awkward, and he needs zach's help.

"zach," he manages to spit out, "curl your fingers."

zach complies easily, the already jittery tendency he has when he holds a pencil making his fingers curl together tightly. his hand is shaking a little from all the excitement and frankie gasps and rolls his hips down on zach's stomach.

frankie thinks it's a little odd that zach has had his fingers up frankie's ass before he's touched his dick. maybe that was some kind of weird last ditch effort to preserve what's left of his heterosexuality. frankie shamelessly shoves a hand between himself and zach's stomach to jerk himself off.

zach seems to realize he wants to do it himself, but can't because of the angle. instead, he watches frankie stroke himself and tries to get his fingers deeper inside of him. "yeah, frankie. _fuck_ , that's hot," he says, licking his lips.

frankie nods, pressing a quick kiss to zach's shoulder. he hopes zach isn't going to mind when he comes all over his chest. unsurprisingly, he doesn't, just sort of looks down curiously.

"sorry," frankie says, his voice gravelly.

zach grins lazily. "that was _hot_ , frankie." his chin presses to his chest as he looks down and tries to wipe some of spunk off. "like, i want to wipe it off, but, like, i _don't_." frankie rolls his eyes.

* * *

the last day of the semester approaches quickly, and so does passover. zeta beta tau is still recovering from the pajama party the previous night when the passover celebrations are due to begin the following week. the walls are still covered in silly string and there are so many pairs of bunny slippers in the house's lost and found box that frankie's frat brothers start using them to mop up water leaks in the basement.

"yeah, but we need a really fucking _big_ cake," cody says into the house phone. "like, massive and fucking _blue_." he pauses to listen to someone on the other end. "why blue? i don't know, fuckface, because it's the color of god's glory, maybe?" he makes a face and looks over to the guys in disbelief. putting one hand over the mouthpiece, he says, "is this guy at the bakery new, or something? never made a fucking bar mitzvah or passover cake before?"

zach laughs loudly, jumping off the couch and reaching for the phone. "give the phone to me! i'll set him straight!"

"no!" frankie yells, tugging zach back down in a heap on top of him. "he's just doing his job!"

zach rolls his eyes. "speaking of, do you have to work this week, hayden?"

"nah," hayden says, "i got work off for the holiday." he's staring at his phone, probably texting nicole.

frankie frowns, gently scratching zach's back from over his tank top. "if i get a job, would my boss give me time off during passover week because i'm in a jewish fraternity?"

hayden snorts. "would my boss give me time off during pride week because i'm in a fraternity with a gay dude?"

"good point," frankie laughs, squeezing zach's thigh.

zach grumbles. "stop touching me, frankie!"

"that's not what you said in the attic last night," frankie grins, already nostalgic for the previous night's party.

"what the fuck?" hayden asks, finally looking up from his phone. "i thought that screeching was the _bats_."

zach goes bright red, but thankfully cody gets off the phone and interrupts the conversation before frankie can get the chance to further humiliate zach. as much as zach acts like he hates people knowing they're sleeping together, by the time they're in frankie's bed at night zach has already turned his embarrassment into desperation for frankie to fuck him again.

they still haven't gotten around to having sex in zach's parents' house, namely because frankie hasn't been invited over and doesn't want to be rude and just show up. they're probably going to rent a place together for the summer (cody accuses them of being more disgustingly romantic than hayden and nicole, but zach insists he's only going to stay with frankie because frankie has nobody to hang out with when school is out because of his mother and sister being halfway across the country).

"did you read this thing on the school website?" hayden asks, scrolling through his phone. "some senior who worked at that bar we go to on park street got arrested last weekend for serving minors and he ended up getting expelled right before graduation."

"if i worked at a bar where _that_ many smokebombs came in, i would serve minors too," cody brags.

"you already do, calzone," hayden says, looking back down at his phone, "every friday night, in fact."

"whatever, dude. i'm not some pervy guy with a buzzcut, though."

frankie looks up, startled. "how do you know he has a buzzcut?"

"there's a mugshot on here," hayden says, "he looks kind of like vinn deisel if vinn deisel had inbred hillbilly parents."

zach looks to frankie with a smile tugging at his lips. "was that the guy?"

"what guy?" cody asks nosily.

frankie stares at him. was cody trying to play it cool so zach wouldn't catch on that cody had helped frankie out by taking his problem to the school board? "you _know_ ," frankie stresses, "the _guy_."

" _oh_ ," cody says, finally remembering their previous conversation. "no, see, i never did anything about that. i totally forgot."

frankie glares. "you had nothing to do with this?"

cody shrugs. "sorry, frank. i meant to tell derrick, i _swear_."

"well, at least peyton got a free beer out of it," zach says casually.

frankie whips his head around. " _what_?"

"your brother?" hayden asks, furrowing his eyebrows. "you gave your little brother booze? that's fucked up, man."

"nah," zach smiles, "my friend beastmode did. while there was an undercover cop next to me."

frankie gapes. " _you_ did this?"

"i saw the note inside the cowboy hat in your room," zach admits, "and i asked around campus if kappa kappa gamma was dangerous. nobody really knew, so i went to their frat house and some guy there told me caleb was obsessed with some famous singer's brother who goes here. so, i brought peyton to the bar on park street and told caleb if he wanted to impress you, he would give me and my brother a free beer." zach lounges back on the couch with both his arms spread out lazily.

frankie just stares. "you're _insane_. i think you're crazier than him."

"if you need me to stick up for you in there, you'll tell me, right?" zach asks in a lower voice. he stares at frankie until it dawns on him that zach is repeating exactly what frankie asked him the night of the yom kippur fasting when zach's mom was trying to con him into more blind dates with girls.

frankie shakes his head in disbelief. "probably not," he admits slowly.

"then i guess i'll just have to pay _really_ close attention," zach grins.

**Author's Note:**

> bizach.tumblr.com


End file.
